Being for The Benefit of Mr Kite 1843 - Vintage Poster Art - Beatles Song Inspiration

The inspiration for John Lennon and the Beatles to write the song, Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite was this 19th-century circus poster advertising... more

by Vertigo Creative

Title

Being for The Benefit of Mr Kite 1843 - Vintage Poster Art - Beatles Song Inspiration

Artist

Vertigo Creative

Medium

Digital Art

Description

The inspiration for John Lennon and the Beatles to write the song, "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite" was this 19th-century circus poster advertising Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal appearance at Rochdale. John Lennon purchased the Victorian poster in an antique shop on January 31, 1967 while the Beatles were filming the promotional videos for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" in Sevenoaks, Kent. Lennon claimed years later to still have the poster in his home. "Everything from the song is from that poster," he explained, "except the horse wasn't called Henry." (The poster identifies the horse as "Zanthus".) "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is credited to Lennon–McCartney, but Lennon said he had written it entirely himself. McCartney disagrees; in a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said: "I read, occasionally, people say, 'Oh, John wrote that one.' I say, 'Wait a minute, what was that afternoon I spent with him, then, looking at this poster?' He happened to have a poster in his living room at home. I was out at his house, and we just got this idea, because the poster said 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite' – and then we put in, you know, 'there will be a show tonight,' and then it was like, 'of course,'… The song just wrote itself. So, yeah, I was happy to kind of reclaim it as partially mine." The real Mr. Kite is believed to be William Kite, who worked with Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal from 1843 to 1845.

Uploaded

February 21st, 2020